1997
was a brilliant year for Ga.
Our
approach has always been to listen and try to make people feel they can be part
of all projects from start to finish. We
are always after people who have a passion for al¡ these projects or evern
something new, the ideas are all there to be discovered! Please contact us immediately
if you have such passions! Today
our communities need as much people power as people are willing to give and I
see Green Adventure as a catalyst for change in individuals' lives. At GA we don't
want to do it `for you' we want you to do it yourselves and only in this way can
real communities be built. As
local people, we know what it right for our communities. We live there after all.
Everyone
is welcome to be part of the management of GA, we live in a diverse community
and we hope we represent that by the people who are the managers of GA. I
myself started off as a weekly volunteer, but found the energy too contageous:
it has been a great challenge for me to find myself contributing to the management
work one year later. I
know that in 1998 we will continue to make a positive bright and even magical
contribution with everyone we touch, and I hope you will continue to give us the
energy, vision and support we need to further our work. Thankyou. Janine
Lai ~ Vice Chair 1997
| | COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT cotd. The
Management Committee in 1997 comprised of 8 people of various ages, lifestyles,
cultural backgrounds and experience. We have a dynamic mix of very experienced
and first-time Committee members. This ensures that a fresh approach to management
is combined with the valuable experience and knowledge of more seasoned members.
As a result, a lot of practical high-level management training takes place thoughout
the year. We
are very proud of the fact that Green Adventure is thus cultivating the next generation
of community leaders. This
is from Carol Chapman, Secretary of Green Adventure for `97: Having spent
the past 15 years involved in the voluntary sector in Lambeth, the Green Adventure
Management Committee is the first one I have felt completely comfortable on. Instead
of the domineering and authoritarian behaviour I have observed on other committees,
I have found a new and enlightened style of management. The enthusiasm and dynamism
in Green Adventure, the real participation and the sense of optimism pervading
the project have ensured that I am genuinely excited by the prospect of the next
12 months of Green Adventure's work.
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The
aim of the Green Ventures box scheme is
"to
supply local people with fresh, seasonal organically grown vegetables, fruit and
other produce as cheaply as possible, and to provide a home delivery service."
Green
Ventures has continued to do this in 1997 and much more. When
joining, people are asked whether they can afford the market price (as this helps
to subsidise the scheme) and if not they pay wholesale price (and join the LETS
scheme if not already on it). Home
delivery also benefits several members who are housebound or parents with young
children. Some
members say they need an organic-based diet for health reasons. All
the targets that we had set ourselves for this year have been met, and in some
cases exceeded.
We
have trained several members of the scheme in administration and co-ordination,
and they have gained valuable work experience as a result. We
now have more members and core volunteers from different ethnic groups, and try
to ensure that the produce is appropriate to as wide a range of cultures as possible.
We
have been invited to initiate a new box scheme based at a `tenants house' in north
Camberwell. Plans for this are now underway.
A
further box scheme, based at Middlesex University, was also kick-started by Green
Ventures through a member who lives locally, and is now running independently. There
have been many other spin-offs from the Green Ventures scheme. These include a
large influx of members and trading on the local LETS schemes, a steady supply
of volunteers to other Green Adventure projects, referral of potential new food-growing
projects and contact with other groups in the neighbourhood, etc. None
of the produce we supply has needlessly travelled huge distances. Our local transport
infrastructure is still made up of bikes & trailers. This, coupled with
supporting organic farming & the recycling collection, is what makes this
scheme exemplary as a model of sustainability. However,
the box scheme's most obvious benefit is that of increasing the consumption
of fresh fruit & vegetables. The UK has the lowest consumption levels
of fruit & veg (organic or otherwise) in Europe. The link between good nutrition
and the prevention of sickness and disease in widely acknowledged. The box scheme,
as well as being a community enhancing, empowering self-help scheme, benefits
both the health of the environment and of people.
| | Over
the past year, Green Ventures has supplied more than 32,000 bags of organically
grown vegetables and fruit to over 120 local people. Our
annual turnover for 1997 was approximately £18,000 plus over 4,000 LETS.
This
represents a considerable contribution to LETS trading and membership locally
(about 50% of the local LETS members are on our box scheme). A
veg box which costs £7 market price is sold to our members at £5 (wholesale
cost) + 2 Lets. A
recent survey of our members showed that 37% of our members are unemployed and
only 35% are in full time employment. We actively target people on a low income. Almost
100% of the members who are working on the box scheme are on a low income and
able to get free organic produce in exchange for their work. Over
the year 37 members of the scheme have been regularly involved in its running
(doing vegetable sorting, delivery or admin). Each
week, up to 12 members help to run the scheme, and are paid in LETS currency or
in produce. In
this way, the box scheme is succeeding in its primary aim - making healthy organic
produce accessible to people on a low income. 
|
BOTH
Community Orchards received a BT Environment Week Award this year. This enabled
us to create ponds!
Leaf
Community Garden - The regular workdays are continuing on a fortnightly
basis. As a result of all our activities so far (& thanks to Walworth Garden
Farm for providing a team to help with some of the heavy work) the Garden looks
really beautiful now. We also now have a patio for a table & chairs beside
our herb & perfumed garden, and we are working on a spring & summer meadow.
We aim for a good diversity of flora & fauna to create our own `Garden of
Eden' in the middle of Peckham. We celebrated summer with several well attended
BBQs on site, and our massive pond has now been finished. Stephanie
Lodge, Secretary
Camberwell
Green Community Orchard - a small pond was added this year (thanks
to Furniture Aid South Thames for the recycled bath), as well as some more plants
& bushes. Change needs to be slow on this very exposed site, as plants need
to become
established as much into the soil as into the local look & imagination.
The BBQ in the summer was exceptionally busy & lively and the other main event
was the Tree Dressing in December this year. Orchard maintenance days continue
regularly once a month, with many crafts activities thrown in, and so attract
a lot of children and young adults. A bumper crop of blackcurrants & redcurrants
surprised us all, as did a very pretty and tasty show of cherries in the summer.
Strawberries, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries and even a few pears, apples
& plums were harvested as well as the herbs.
Food
From Gardens Project
~ This was a new venture this year, prompted by our box scheme members, who started
spontaneously offering unused gardens for growing food for the box scheme. With
already one orchard over-target, as this is an excellent way to `close the loop'
of sustainable food production (& we already deliver food and collect compost)
of course we jumped at the opportunity. Thanks to help from the Local Projects
Fund for partially funding this project.
We planned to take on ten new
gardens - we've actually ended up with thirteen sites, though most of these
are still in the preliminary stages, as a lot of work for preparing the ground
had to be done. Seven of these are small gardens, four are much larger sites.
Some examples: These
are only some of the 13 food-growing sites we are working on, and the ones that
we are not yet able to take up due to limited resources are many more: work in
an Adventure Playground, one other orchard, several more gardens, two more schools
and one other greenhouse site.... the Peckham Lido site wants to be converted
into a large walled orchard but we still await Council approval for this particular
idea from the local Friends of the nearby park.
| |
Shardaloes
Road
When GA first became involved with this garden site it was
very overgrown and had been used as a builders' yard and dump for many years.
However, Sally and her young son Dan, both dedicated volunteer gardeners, have
done a remarkable job with it in a short amount of time, and are looking forward
to the first harvest this spring. So far four beds have been prepared and planted
with herbs, fruit bushes, broad beans, garlic, peas, cabbage and bol‹ choy.
Cats,
foxes and a ridiculously large number of snails have all attempted to hinder progress,
but black cotton criss-crossed over the beds is deterring the first two offenders,
while protecting vulnerable plants by covering them over with recycled plastic
drink bottles seems to be keeping the marauding molluscs at bay. Sally intends
to rid the garden of snails by eating them, but although she's sorted out recipes
for their preparation and cooking, she hasn't quite built up enough courage to
actually go through with it yet. Dan's not too impressed with the idea! When asked
what she thought she had gained from volunteering, Sally answered:
"A
great sense of achievement. I knew nothing about growing plants before Istarted,
and to see all these things Iplanted growing and doing well is really wonderful.
"
Hillcourt
Road
Anna, a student, lives at this site with her two young children.
She contacted GA to see if we could help her produce food organically from her
garden. Surrounded by overgrown damson trees and on a slope it was
a damp,
shady plot with soil being washed towards the house every time it rained. With
the help of Henry, a local volunteer, the trees have been drastically reduced
in height, and will be allowed to grow back as a hedge. The trunks and larger
branches that were removed are being used to construct retaining walls so the
garden can be terraced, while the smaller stuff is being chipped and used as a
mulch.
An additional result from working on the garden is that Anna has made
friends with her upstairs neighbour, who had previously been suspicious and wary
of her and the children. As he is in his late eighties he can no longer work on
his own garden, which is to the back of Anna's, and has watched what was once
his pride and joy become overgrown with bindweed and brambles. However, Anna and
Henry have cleared it and are replanting with fruit bushes and vegetables. The
neighbour now regularly comes out to chat to them while they're working.
Henry
says that he's :"excited about the idea of being able to eat food that
I've grown myself." Windlass
Place
This is a very large area of rough ground adjoining an allotment
site on the Pepys Estate, Deptford, which has kindly been given to us by Lewisham
Council. It's overgrown with couch grass and brambles and has been used as a rubbish
dump by locals. With the help of Bernard and Jonathon work has started, clearing
ground and planting fruit bushes.
It is intended for this site to become a
model organic vegetable plot, with a small orchard and wildlife garden, proving
that any urban waste ground can be made productive, and also to provide an amenity
for local people. 
John
Ruskin Nursery School
We were approached by the teacher of this
local nursery school, who'd heard about us through a member of the Green Ventures
box scheme. She needed help setting up a small vegetable garden with the children
in the grounds of the school. On our initial visits, we helped prepare the ground
and supplied starter plants (giant pumpkins & tomatoes) along with some much
needed manure. Our task was then to find one or more volunteers to work on the
garden together with the children.
As luck would have it, the ideal volunteer
soon turned up at the office in the shape of Cleopatra. Cleo had worked as a gardener
for years, as well as working with children on environmental projects, and was
keen to further her experience. She has been working alongside the teacher for
the past few months, lately joined by Pip.
Kennington
Park Greenhouse
We helped local residents to save this greenhouse
from the bulldozers and now the idea of turning this site into a Community Garden
Centre is slowly taking shape. After a great deal of negotiations around the design
of the surrounding area and lengthy consultations with residents, and having drawn
up a detailed wildlife survey (thanks to Storm Poorun) our volunteer Solicitor,
Lucy Sturrock, of Field Fisher and Waterhouse for essential work to get the lease
sorted out with Lambeth Council. The groundwork has been laid.
Brockwell
Park Greenhouse Site
Again,
we became involved in this project at the request of local people, and this also
is a huge site with vast potential. We drew up the Business Plan for this to become
a Community Environmental Centre in consultation with local groups, and started
to apply for funding for this exciting inner-city regeneration project. Many keen
volunteers have since come forward very much wanting to make this dream come true.
|
Thanks
to Catherine Pearce and Elizabeth Omiteru who explored our recycling interest
in a more systematic way at the beginning of this year. Their work (initially
to get Green Adventure to sponsor recycling banks locally) and interest revealed
a great deal of untapped potential in this area: Composting:
the box scheme delivery volunteers also collect compost from the households that
we deliver organic fruit & veg to. This is then taken to our community orchards.
Paper
& aluminium recycling: this was started by the young people who planted
our first community orchard, in order to fundraise for more trees and bushes.
We found that there is a lot of demand for door-to-door collection on local estates.
Jumble
sales: this is good recycling and also good fundraising for us.
Festivals
Recycling: To set up a community business doing waste clearance and recycling
for summer park festivals & other such public gatherings.
Efficient
use of resources has to be a key component in developing sustainable local economies.
We were inspired by calls from the community to look for additional funding to
further these possibilities.
| |
Thanks
to Transco & their Grassroots Environmental Action fund, in October of this
year we were able to employ a Recycling Co-ordinator for 10 months 1 day per week
which is, we hope, a start of something exciting.
We
have already helped one local Tenants' Association to set up the collection banks
they wanted on their estate, and we are investigating others.
One
of the schemes that we have already implemented is to manufacture cycle trailers
from recycled materials. Plenty of waste wood, metal and bits of scrap are
used as raw materials. We know there is a market as we are in touch with the London
Cycling Campaign.
At the time of writing, Peter Dunnett, one of our volunteers,
is now on the verge of manufacturing these, and finding out that the realities
of turning used materials into usable items is a lot more interesting than at
first suspected! This is the seed of a small community business. We
are investigating more of these exciting employment-creation ideas and we look
forward to more of these successes in the future.
Thanks to Southwark Council
for a £260 donation which financed the beginnings of this project, enabling
us to do much more than just purchase one trailer. This amount will go towards
producing the prototype which will then be used for recycling collection and for
our box scheme delivery. |
This
summer we organised our first Play scheme. Our aim was to "Mobilise the
vision, courage and passion of youth towards sustainability".
Most
days were taken up by trips of various kinds. We did all this and more in just
two weeks!
Thanks
to Southwark Council, whose funding covered the essential core costs of the Play
scheme: workers' wages, volunteers expenses and some materials costs. Thanks
also to Camberwell Cash Converters, Andrews Motor Mechanics and Howard Bros. DIY
shop for their generous donations. Thanks
especially to our volunteers, without whom the play scheme could not have taken
place.
| | - We
visited the Rubbish Dump, a child-centred interactive venue designed to give reasons
for recycling and reducing consumer waste. The children had the chance to make
their own new paper from old.
- We
were passing through Burgess Park on the day after the Southwark Show Festival.
The park was strewn with drinks cans. The children, equipped with plastic bags,
quickly learned to separate aluminium from steel. We took the cans to the local
scrap metal merchant who paid us £7. This helped to finance the end of play
scheme party and gave the children an important lesson in the practicability of
recycling.
- We
took the children on a guided tour of a Thames Water plant in Walthamstow called
The Copper mills. We saw the high-tech control room and the filter beds. The children
learned how water is cleaned and how it is recycled back to our kitchen taps.
- We
spent some time teaching children how to sprout their own beans and how to make
hummus.
- We
also did some food-tasting and discussed relevant issues like food miles and diet.
- We
visited the Peckham Canal site, Sydenham Woods and the Surrey Docks Farm.
|
Green
Adventure was instrumental in setting up this new umbrella organisation which
to date comprises of 18 community groups in the Oval area interested in furthering
these aims:
- To
help develop & implement regeneration proposals for the Kennington Oval area
and surrounds.
- To
help members of the local community become more actively involved in regeneration
proposals for the area.
- To
ensure that regeneration proposals contribute to sustainable development by meeting
the needs of the local community without endangering the well-being of the natural
world and the living conditions of other people, now or in the future.
- To
actively encourage the inclusion of under-represented groups in the community,
including young people, Black people, members of ethnic minority groups and disabled
people.
We
feel proud of our input in shaping this agenda. We are also proud of the ORP for
having organised so many community groups into preparing a Single Regeneration
Budget (SRB) bid this year. Learning
from the lessons of Brixton Challenge and other SRB projects, the keystone of
the scheme is to establish the consultation connection with local people before
the development of regeneration proposals. | | THE
ECO-BUILDING PROJECT
This
is the main project we are involved in under the ORP scheme.
It is an exciting proposal to convert a semi-derelict warehouse into a energy
efficient community centre, in partnership with other organisations. This will
be a flagship project for Lambeth and, if all goes well, our new home! In
May we had an open day at the site and received feedback and suggestions from
local residents. In
September we submitted a detailed proposal to the ORP. Thanks
to Architects Peter Deakins for having done extensive work for this project and
a detailed outline presentation brochure is available on request.
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